The Weakley Film News 12-15-2017

We are well into December, and I haven’t watched a holiday movie yet. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? (Don’t answer that.)

In this week’s “Woody joining Venom?” story, Woody Harrelson is in talks for an undisclosed role in Venom, the Tom Hardy-led Spider-Man offshoot from Sony.

Hardy is starring as the popular Marvel Comics antihero with Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate also on the roll call.

If a deal is made, it would mark a reunion for Harrelson with helmer Ruben Fleischer, who directed the actor in the hit 2009 zombie comedy Zombieland. Venom is already deep into production — filming began in October — and rumors of Harrelson’s involvement have swirled on-and-off.

Sony, which had no comment, will release Venom on Oct. 5, 2018.

In this week’s “How do you Doo-little?” story, actor Jim Broadbent has joined Robert Downey, Jr. and the cast of The Voyage of Dr. Doolittle.

Dunkirk actor Harry Collett is also on board to co-star in the pic.

Stephen Gaghan, who most recently directed Matthew McConaughey’s “Gold,” will helm the film from his own screenplay. Tom Shepherd wrote an earlier draft.

The studio acquired the project following a heated bidding war with producers Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum through their Roth Kirschenbaum Films, alongside Susan Downey for Team Downey.

British author Hugh Lofting created the Doctor Dolittle character in his 1920s series of children’s books, in which a Victorian-era physician opts to treat animals instead of humans because he’s able to speak with them. It is currently unknown what role Broadbent will be playing in the film.

In this week’s “Keep an eye on her, please” story, Jennifer Lawrence is set to star in and produce the upcoming film adaptation of the Australian author Hannah Kent’s award-winning 2013 novel, Burial Rites.

Kent’s novel is based on the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman to be executed in Iceland in 1830. A farm worker, Magnúsdóttir was sentenced to death for her part in the murder of two men and, due to the structure of the Icelandic legal system, spent her last days at an isolated farmhouse with a family of upstanding citizens watching over her. Kent’s novel reimagines the story of these final months before Magnúsdóttir’s execution.

Lawrence will play Magnúsdóttir in the film adaptation, Variety reports, which will be produced by TriStar Pictures. The American actor and star of the Hunger Games films and Silver Linings Playbook will be directed by Italian Luca Guadagnino, whose film Call Me By Your Name has been nominated for three Golden Globe awards.

The story of Magnúsdóttir has previously been made into a film for Icelandic audiences, 1995’s Agnes, which starred Icelandic actors Maria Ellingsen and Baltasar Kormákur.

Burial Rites was one of the most talked-about Australian novels of 2013. Guardian reviewer Sarah Moss called it “beautiful and compelling”, while Observer reviewer Lucy Scholes said it was “a simple but moving story, meticulously researched and hauntingly told”.

Well, this sounds like Oscar stuff.

In this week’s “Nutcracker news” story, Disney is rolling into reshoots on their upcoming live-action take on the classic Christmas tale The Nutcracker. THR reports that Captain America and Jumanji director Joe Johnston will take the helm for a “significant” additional photography shoot for The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which adapts the classic ballet by Peter Tchaikovsky and story by E.T.A. Hoffmann.

Cider House Rules and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape director Lasse Hallstrom directed the film for Disney and per the report, the filmmaker wasn’t sidelined during pickups but was unavailable to return for them due to scheduling issues. Once additional photography is complete, Hallstrom will return for post-production.

“The film is in very good hands in London while I’m away,” said Hallstrom in a statement to THR. “I will return to post production after the holidays.” [sic].

Mackenzie Foy stars as Clara, alongside Keira Knightley as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Morgan Freeman as Drosselmeyer, Helen Mirren as Mother Ginger, and American Ballet Theatre prima ballerina Misty Copeland, who will perform in the film’s dance sequences. Foy, Knightley, Freeman, and Copeland, among others, are returning for the reshoots, which are expected to last 32 days and include script work from Oscar-winning Spotlight filmmaker Tom McCarthy.

No word on what specific issues they’ll be addressing during the reshoots, but it’s worth noting that additional photography and pickup shots are a normal part of the filmmaking process, especially for tentpole films, blah blah blah.

Fine, they’re doing some extra shooting. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms arrives in theaters Nov. 2, 2018

In this week’s “Finally, Fett” story, though a Boba Fett stand alone film has been announced some time ago, it now appears the rumor is Simon Kinberg has been brought on to contribute to the development of the Boba Fett movie.

For those who are unfamiliar with his name, Kinberg might be best-known for his role as the producer of the X-Men movies as well as the person in charge of the upcoming Dark Phoenix. Furthermore, it is important to note that Kinberg can claim a fair amount of Star Wars expertise and experience, seeing as he was a creator, a writer, and an executive producer for Star Wars Rebels. As a result, while Kinberg is rumored to be a writer for the Boba Fett movie at the moment, it seems possible that he might be chosen to serve as its director as well should Dark Phoenix prove to be a commercial success.

Nothing more than ‘rumour’ though so far.

In this week’s “Another 48 Hours, but not THAT one, a NEW one” story, the success of the film Good Times has put the filmmakers Josh and Bennie Safdi into the sights of the big league.

After turning down an offer to “a sequel to this huge comic-book thing”, but still knowing they wanted to work in the studio system, another project found its’ way to them.

The Hollywood Reporter reports the Safdies will direct a remake of the buddy cop classic 48 Hrs., with Josh Safdie and his regular collaborator Ronald Bronstein penning the script, along with Jerrod Carmichael (The Carmichael Show). The film is a redo of the 1982 Walter Hill flick starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, the latter’s first major big screen role, which helped launch him to superstardom. The movie spawned a not so well received sequel, Another 48 Hrs., in 1990.

This one will be a ways off, though, as the the pair’s next film is “Uncut Gems,” produced by Martin Scorsese.

In this week’s “Yes, EVERYTHING belongs to Disney, now” story, if you hadn’t heard yet, the deal went through: Disney has basically merged/bough 21st Century Fox so now Disney owns Fox. Woah.

On that note, Ryan Reynolds says Deapool 2 will still have an ‘R’ rating. Woo hoo!

In this week’s “Ronald D Moore goes back to space” story, Apple has given a straight-to-series order to a space drama from the Battlestar Galactica developer. The untitled project hails from Sony Pictures Television and Moore’s studio-based Tall Ship Productions.

Created and written by Moore, along with Fargo co-executive producers Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, the untitled series explores what would have happened if the global space race had never ended. Tall Ship Prods.’ Moore and Maril Davis executive produce with Wolpert and Nedivi.

The Moore/Wolpert/Nedivi drama also marks the first series order for Van Amburg and Erlicht from Sony TV, which they ran before leaving in June to go to Apple. It reunites them with Moore with whom they worked on a number of projects while at Sony, including Starz hit series Outlander, developed, executive producer and run by Moore, and the upcoming Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams for Amazon, which Moore co-wrote and executive produces.

Hey, more sci-fi is a good thing.

In this week’s “Somebody’s getting busy” story, the director of John Wick 2, Chad Stahelski, is entering the realm of comic book movies with an adaptation of Ed Brubaker‘s dark little tale of suicide, demons, and murder, Kill or Be Killed.

Per THR, Stahelski will team with his John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk to bring Kill or Be Killed to the big screen with Dan Casey, who previously adapted Brubaker’s comic Incognito for Columbia, attached to write the script. Kill or Be Killed follows a depressed college student who attempts suicide, but survives due to interference from a demon who demands that he kill one person for every month he wants to stay alive. Forced to murder bad guys, the unwitting vigilante struggles to keep his nasty little secret while it slowly tears apart the lives of his friends and loved ones.

Well, that sounds fun!

Kill or Be Killed adds to Stahelski’s growing stack of projects. He’s currently in pre-production on John Wick: Chapter 3 and is attached to direct Summit and Lionsgate’s long-developed Highlander remake.

In this week’s “MORE sci-fi!” story, It director, Andy Muschietti, is in talks to direct the Russo Brothers Studio (Marvel) film, a movie version of Simon Stalenhag’s illustrated novel The Electric State.

The story, set in an alternative 1997, centers on a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot as they travel through a strange USA, where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside heaped together with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car approaches the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to be unraveling ever faster as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.

Muscietti, who’s attached to direct It: Chapter 2, would direct and produce Electric State with sister Barbara Muschietti and RBS principals Joe and Anthony Russo, should the deal go through. Russell Ackerman and John Schoenfelder are also in talks to produce. Julian Angelin of The Salomonsson Agency and Simon Stålenhag will executive produce.

The Russos are in post-production on Disney-Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity Wars, which opens May 4. Stohlenhag also authored Tales from the Loop and Things From the Flood.

In this week’s “From Hot Pockets to film drama” story, comedian/actor Jim Gaffigan is set to star in All the Animals Come Out at Night, according to Variety.

Robbie Jones, Isabel Arraiza and Tammy Blanchard are also on board to star with Derrick Borte directing. Borte is also writing along with Daniel Forte.

Scott Lochmus of Storyland Pictures is producing the film in association with XYZ Films and via a workforce development partnership with Old Dominion University and The Virginia Film Commission.

The film tells the story of Cam (Gaffigan), a former computer programmer, now a down on his luck driver. After suffering an emotional breakdown, and the subsequent loss of his job and family, he is a shell of the successful man he once was. Cam makes extra cash chauffeuring Mazz, a low-level drug dealer, around the city. As Cam’s situation deteriorates into a serious financial bind he decides to kidnap Mazz’s child in hopes of collecting a ransom from the cash-carrying dealer.

This sounds interesting to me. Gaffigan is a solid dramatic actor.

And in this week’s “Surprise!” story, actor/comedian Artie Lange is headed to rehab.

Former “Howard Stern Show” personality Artie Lange is rehab-bound, after pleading guilty in a drug case against him.

A spokeswoman for the Essex County, NJ prosecutor told TheWrap that Lange pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree possession of a controlled dangerous substance on Friday, and indicated in court that he planned to enter a rehab program.

Lange had also been charged with possession of cocaine, though that charge was dismissed in exchange for his guilty plea.
Specifically, Lange pleaded guilty to possession of 81 decks of heroin.

Lange is due for sentencing Feb. 23.

The comedian was arrested at his New Jersey home earlier this week, after missing a court date relating to his May 12 arrest.

According to NJ.com, Lange was seen erratically driving his Range Rover on the Garden State Parkway in May. When stopped, law enforcement found a bag of heroin on his lap. Lange was subsequently charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance and drug paraphernalia.

In March, the former “Howard Stern Show” personality was arrested for heroin and cocaine possession, which was reported as “several bags of drugs” in his possession. He was released after being booked on three unspecified charges.

HE’s been open about his battles with addiction, so it’s not a secret. But man, his mugshot photo is NOT good.

Ok, on that note, Happy Holidays! See you next time! 🙂

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Author: Neil Weakley

Hi. I'm Neil. I didn't go to film school so I don't really have to justify any of my opinions about why I like a film or not. So there. But I worked in film for a number of years, so I have hands-on experience. That, and I've known Chris Mancini for, like, 25 years or so. It really is all who you know. :)
I'm mostly, but not exclusively, a fan of sci-fi, comic book movies, horror, comedies, and weird independent films. If you're an average movie-goer and want to know what another average movie-goer thinks without all the "feelm school" gobbley-gook, hop on over to www.comedyfilmnerds.com and look for me, Neil T. Weakley. I won't steer you wrong. Or follow me on Twitter @FilmNerdNeil.